What is Active Release Technique (ART)?

By Dr. Ter­resa Hwang, 2011 Kona Iron­man Cham­pi­onship treat­ment team, cer­ti­fied ART provider, Choice Chi­ro­prac­tic

ART ® is a soft tis­sue man­age­ment sys­tem devel­oped by P. Michael Leahy, D.C., CCSP. Dr. Leahy is a chi­ro­prac­tor in Col­orado Springs, Col­orado. He uti­lized his back­ground in aero­nau­ti­cal engi­neer­ing and anatomy to effec­tively treat soft tis­sue prob­lems, which were not respond­ing to other tra­di­tional treatments.

The goal of ART® is to restore opti­mal tex­ture, motion, and func­tion of the soft tis­sue and release any entrapped nerves or blood ves­sels. This is accom­plished through the removal of adhe­sions or fibro­sis in the soft tis­sues via the appli­ca­tion of spe­cific pro­to­cols. Adhe­sions can occur as a result of acute injury, repet­i­tive motion, and con­stant pres­sure or ten­sion. ART® elim­i­nates the pain and dys­func­tion asso­ci­ated with these adhesions.

Dr. Leahy first began teach­ing his inno­v­a­tive tech­nique in 1991 using the name myofas­cial release. Later in 1995, he trade­marked the name Active Release Tech­niques® . This was done for sev­eral reasons —

1. this tech­nique was deal­ing with more than just mus­cle and fascia;
2. there are many other tech­niques which uti­lize the name myofas­cial release and many prac­ti­tion­ers that uti­lize myofas­cial release tech­niques which are not sim­i­lar in any way or form to ART®
3. to stan­dard­ize the treat­ment a patient receives and dupli­cate the high rate of suc­cess achieved with ART® , a pro­fi­ciency level was devel­oped for ART® providers.

The types of con­di­tions suc­cess­fully treated with ART® is very diverse. Some of the more com­mon con­di­tions are:

• Carpal tun­nel and other periph­eral nerve entrapments
• Spinal pain and dysfunction
• Ten­donitis and other soft tis­sue inflam­ma­tory dis­or­ders of the hand, wrist, elbow, shoul­der, hip, knee, ankle, and foot
• Sci­at­ica, TMJ, recur­rent sprains and strains

Only a cre­den­tialed ART® provider can ascer­tain whether ART® might prove ben­e­fi­cial for your con­di­tion. Providers must attend annual update sem­i­nars to main­tain their cre­den­tialed sta­tus and keep cur­rent of any new pro­to­cols and research. To ver­ify a provider’s cre­den­tials, refer to the providers list at www​.activere​lease​.com.

All BC4C par­tic­i­pants receive a 10% dis­count on ART® treat­ments by Dr. Hwang.

Here is a video of some typ­i­cal ART® treatment:

ARTICLE REFERENCE: www​.activere​leasetech​nique​.com

Good Measure Meals Are Better Than Good

BY LAUREN

A big THANK YOU to our friends at Good Mea­sure Meals™ for join­ing us this morn­ing to tell us about the pro­gram, and espe­cially for bring­ing deli­cious meals to share! For those of you that missed it, or want more infor­ma­tion, read on…

Good Mea­sure Meals™ makes it easy to eat healthy and enjoy gourmet food every day. Calo­ries and nutri­ents are bal­anced daily to ensure con­sis­tency. No short cuts by bal­anc­ing by the week or month. All of their menus incor­po­rate the guide­lines of the Amer­i­can Heart Asso­ci­a­tion, the Amer­i­can Dia­betes Asso­ci­a­tion and the Amer­i­can Dietetic Association.

That is just the begin­ning. The Good Mea­sure Meals™ culi­nary dietit­ian works closely with the chefs to ensure the meals taste great. They incor­po­rate fresh pro­duce and USDA inspected meats and never add preser­v­a­tives. Cre­ative recipes devel­oped by the team ensure vari­ety and the right bal­ance of nutri­ents. They update the menus twice each year in order to fea­ture sea­sonal favorites in the Spring/Summer and Fall/Winter menus.

Good Mea­sure Meals™ offers 4 menus. All are on a 5 week rota­tion, ensur­ing lots of vari­ety, and adhere to a healthy bal­ance of 22–25% pro­tein, 27–30% healthy fat and 45–48% con­sis­tent health pro­mot­ing car­bo­hy­drates. All of the meal plans are:

• COMPLETE meals — no need to pur­chase addi­tional side items
• Always FRESH — never frozen or dehydrated
• High Fiber and Low Glycemic
• Low Fat with zero arti­fi­cial trans fat
• Bal­anced daily to ensure CONSISTENT calo­ries and carbohydrates

And the best part yet? BC4C par­tic­i­pants receive 10% OFF all orders from Good Mea­sure Meals™.

Learn more about the meal plan options »

A pur­chase from Good Mea­sure Meals™ is an invest­ment in your health and the health of oth­ers. Fol­low­ing socially respon­si­ble busi­ness prac­tices, Good Mea­sure Meals™ oper­ates as a social enter­prise busi­ness unit of Atlanta non­profit Open Hand. 100% of their prof­its go directly back to sup­port Open Hand’s ser­vices to the com­mu­nity: an invalu­able ser­vice which has helped thou­sands of peo­ple improve their qual­ity of life through bet­ter nutri­tion. For more infor­ma­tion about Open Hand, please visit their web site »

PHOTO CREDIT: Good Mea­sure Meals™

How are you feel­ing after week two? Share our thoughts by click­ing “Com­ments” above this post!